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HON. STEPHEN B. fACIAED 

AT 

THE REPUBLICAN MASS MEETING 



j:CiTBATIFICATION OF 



THE EEPUBLIOAN NATIONAL AND STATE TICKETS, 

Mechanics' Institute, New Orleans, July 10, 18*16. 



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SPEECH OF HON. STEPHEN B. PACKARD. 



Fellow C it hens: 

I rejoice to see thn entbusiasni with whifb 
yon have numerously aiiBenibled to ratify 
your State ticket. You have a good plat- 
form, that consistH in every reepect with 
your national platform, and have selected 
candidates wbo mean, as in the past, to do 
their whole duty to yon ami to your lellow- 
citizens, irrespective of ])arty. 

It is not my j)urpo8e at thia time to pre 
sent a thorough analysis of the platform 
adopted )iy your late Republican conven- 
tion. I indorse it. My views accord with 
the principles therein set forth. To a few 
ot its leading features I will refer. 

SPECIE RESU:ilPTION. 

Our party is pledged, as heretofore, to a 
speedy resumption of specie ])ayment, and 
in entering the present national contest, re 
Horta to no subterfuge in its platform, nor to 
any barter between sections by which tliey 
are each represented in a candidate stand 
ing upon a directly opposite hHSis. The Re 
publican party stands unqualifiedly by its 
past avowals in oonvent'on. anH ;• -'.nto tu 
ilo ifgisiatioa in Congress as a guarantee 
that it will surrender none of its pledges. 

PROTECTION TO SUGAR AND RICE. 

It is reasonably a matter of serious so- 
licitude to the citizen of Louisiana engaged 
in the sugar and rice cullta-e, that their 
protection be jealously maintained as in 
the past by the Republican party. The 
national Democratic platform declares that 
"all Customhouse taxation shall be only 
for revenue." It also uses the following 
emphatic language: "We denounce the 
present tariti levied upon nearly 4000 
articles as a masterpiece of injus- 
■ tice, inequality and false pretense." 
That platform was in every part rati- 
fied here by Democrats at their late mass 
meeting in Lafayette Square with total dis- 
regard of these two important interests. 
The language of our platform is not ambigu- 
ous upon thia eubject, to wit: "A system of 
revenue, taxation and assessment which, 
while it shall provide ample means to 
meet the public expenditures and obli- 



gations, shall also assume the proteo- 
tiin of certain national interests against 
the destructive competition of for- 
eign productions ; especially inf^isting 
that the capital and labor employed in the 
production of the national ctaplca of sugar 
and rice should be iiuhided amouf/ any arti- 
cles entitled to such protection ." What say 
the sugar and rice planters to the ILtwaiian 
treaty? The free trade Democracy in the 
H use of Represent itiv«8 repealed this duty 
on Sandwich Island pugar and i\w, aud 
thus, by implication, ou these articles as 
the product of other nations, with which 
we have reciprocal duties. This treaty, if 
ratified by the remission of duties on 
sugar and rice, would have entitled sugar 
and rice, produced in Hawaii by servile la- 
bor to be brought here free of duty, and 
thus come in ompetiion with the same ar- 
ticle." i)roduoed here. Sugar and rice cul- 
ture has been fostered and encouraged by 
Congress in past years, but let the Demc- 
oratio party get into power, and with its 
views and under its platform it will speedilv 
remniTf tv- v^-. 'y no\« exa'c*'*a upon the im- 
portation of both sugar and rice. Thus it 
will destroy these great national in- 
terests, bring the capital and labor devoted 
to the production of these staples into con]- 
petition with the capital and slave labor of 
foreign countries. A speaker at the recent 
Democratic mass meeting, ratifying the 
national platform and candidates, charjc- 
torized Tilden as the great "smasher." I 
pubmit: to the candid judgmentof those who 
have invested their capital and those who 
contribute their labor to the growing of 
sugar and rice, that if Tilden should 
be elected whether with all his "smashing." 
he and his party will not effectually smash 
this "sugar bowl" of the Union. 

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

Louisiana wants an equitible proportion 
of the money appropriated annually for in- 
ternal improvements. A Republican Con- 
gress gave us appropriations for the Atcha- 
falaya, Calcasieu, Ouachita, Tangipahoa and 
Red River; also for the great work of secu- 
ring deep water at the mouth of the Missis- 



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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 544 671 5 



sippi river. More money was applied for pur- 
poses of commerce by the three Republican 
Congresses preceeding the present, than for 
the preceding thirty years under Democratic 
rule. What will be the record of the present 
tv House? It is believed that it can be truth- 
fully said that nothing will be awarded for 
similar and needed improvements. Our 
levees should be the subiect of federal aid. 
The maintenance of the levees costs the tax- 
payers of the State one-half more than do 
the school's, over one-half as much as the 
interest on the public debt of ttie State, and 
nearly as much as the entire executive, 
judicial and legislative departments of 
the State government. Our State needs 
moreover a railroad to Texas. Consistently 
with the traditions of the Democratic party, 
nothing can not be expected from that 
quarter in aid of works of this character. 
And it is a matter of grave consideration 
for Louisiana, whether a presidential can- 
didate from New York — a State -which has 
long combatted the Western channels 
southward of trade — will not be more apt 
t» encourage a policy to befriend 
the great metropolis of that State 
than will his Western competitor 
who has long and vigorously soughc to 
multiply such channels in the common in- 
terest of both the South and West. This 
consideration derives especial force from 
the reccnb platform of the national Demo- 
cratic party, which denounces such national 
encouragement as "a profligate waste." 
The Republican party, by its liberal ap- 
propriations in behalf of railroads, harbors 
and rivers, the commercial highways of the 
nation, has long been and still is committed 
to the wise policy of opening to commerce 
and agriculture the broad acres of the West 
and Southwest. 

PEACE AND ORDEB. 

It is idle to ever expect an established 
peace within the borders of our State 
until both parties shall unite in a com- 
mon and determined remonstrance against 
the license with which loyal citizens 
are beset with violence. The Republican 
party of the nation has by statute sought 
to repress this vice, and it becomes every 
good citizen to conserve the true inter- 
ests of Louisiana and his own, by join- 
ing to maintain the laws. No com- 
monwealth which sutfers such crimes to j^o 
unpunished deserves or can expect a 
solidly founded prosperity. Every resource 



of the executive office, should I enter it, 
shall be employed to this vital end, and if 
the Democracy here should observe their 
recent national pledges of "absolute acqui- 
escence in the will of the majority," and 
"devotion to the consfitution of the United 
States, wiDh its amendments, as a final set 
tlement," there would be little reason for the 
alarm, announced in our State platform, 
that "grave national dangers demand the 
enactment of such additional laws and the 
enforcement of such a policy as shall secure 
to every citizen of the United States, in fact 
as well as in name, the inalienable rights of 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 
irrespective of his political views, and irre- 
spective of race, color or previous condition 
of servitude." 

Our party desires no mischievou'' feuds 
aud alit nations among a people that should 
be one in all the purposes of an American 
State. 

THE TRUE POLICY OF ABMINI&TRATION. 

It is proper for me briefly to define the 
policy which will govern me in the admin- 
stration of the office oi chief magistrate of 
the State, if elected thereto. 

1. Protection to life and phopeety. 
This will follow a determined and impartial 
execution of the Jaws. 

2 Restoration of confidence and good 

FEELING BETWEEN THE RACES, which will 

follow the inauguration of an administra 
tion, conceded to be elected and having the 
confidence and support of all classes. A 
good administration with undiiiputed title, 
is always competent to command confi- 
dence. 

3. The continued reduction of expen- 
ses of the State government, begun by the 
administration. 

4. Especially a reduction in the ex- 
penses OF ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF 

TAXES, the introduction of such a system as 

will DIMINISH THE NUMBER OF OFFICERS, 

and guarantee relief from erroneous or 

UNJUST VALUATION OF PROPERTY ASSESSED ; 

in other words, an equitable asfessmeut, 
and an honest but vigorous collection of 
the taxes from, the rich as well as from 
the poor. Were the delinquent tax-payor 
promptly to discharge his duties the bur 
dens would rest less heavily upon the mere 
faithful citizen. 

5. The funding act has been most bene- 
ficial and has brought relief to a tax-ridden 
and bankrupt State. It has reduced the 



blinded (iobt of tlie State trnm over i-22,- j 
000.000 to an aninnnt, when all fundalile 
nhligatioDfl arn jirepenfed, of less than |1J,- 
000,000. It bas reduond the State taxes from | 
twenty one and one hall to f(»iirteen and 
one half mills, and the parish taxes in like i 
proportion. It will be my duty, as it will 
b"* my ohoiee, to carry forward this benefi- 
cent financial nieasnreto the end that taxes I 
may be further reduced each year and i 
the debt be constantly dimmished | 
nntil finally extingiiiphed. The faith of 
the State will thns be kept, while the 
burdens of the present taxation will be 
speedily lightened. 

WE MUST HAVE A PEACEABLE ELECTIO.N. 

The manner in which I have discharged 
the duties in the responsible public posi- 
tions which I have hebi in Louisiana enti- 
tles me to the confidence and trust of the 
good people oi the State, that an adminis 
rration of rigid economy and and a faith- 
ful and impartial execution of the laws 
will follow my election. We must have 
a peaceable election. On the part of 
the Kepublicana there shoald be the ut- 
most forbearance toward those black men 
who may wish lo organize and vote with 
the Demooratio party. They should not 
he. gphjected to »ny interfer°Tice with their 
rights as citizens and voters. Their opin- 
ions are their own property. Republicans 
must be prepared to exact the same free- 
dom and tolerance from the DemT)crat9 in 
organizing and in voting their ticket. We 
are entitled to protection, if needed, from 
the federal administration. 

This is a right as old as the history of the 
republic. From the time that Piesidem 
Washington suppressed the insurrection in 
Pennsylvania down to the hour when upon 
the application of Governor Wise, a Presi 
dent dispatched troops to Virginia to arrest 
the John Brown raid; nay, down to the 
later hour when a President ordered a 



detail of troops from Baton Rougo to the 
New Orleans Customhouxe upon the requi- 
sition of a collector of the port in 1859. 
the authority to exer'tse this right was 
unchalli>nged, where the State author! 
ties were unable to maintain the 
public peace. We depire to have a 
peaceful and good natured contest at the 
ballot-box, that the ntmost fairness may 
characterize every phase of the canvass, 
and that the minority next November may 
yield a graceful acquiescence in the choice 
of a majority. 

I am aware that a considerable measure 
of acrimony characterizes political can- 
vasses, but I have here to say that while I 
shall firmly stand for your rights, I shall 
not forget thf t the duty of a gentleman is 
an essential element of good citizenship, 
and shall compete for the popular sutfrage 
with my antagonist, be he who he may, in 
such a way as to forfeit neither his respect 
nor my own. 

I expfct that the active partisans of the 
Democracy equally to comply with the de- 
mands of good manners. The candidates 
of the Republican party of the nation and 
the State should receive the votes of those 
who desire the aid of the federal govern- 
ment to build up our levees, to construct 
onr railroads, to open the hiihways of nnm- 
merce: of those who deprecate violence, 
who would have justice swiftly over- 
take the red-handed assassin, reeking with 
the blood of his victim, who would break 
down and eradicate the unreasoning pre- 
judice of such as ostracise men for opin- 
ion's sake; of those who desire a wide es- 
tablishment and maintenance of a salutary 
public school system; and finally, of those 
who believe that everj' man whose guar- 
antees are lodged in the constitution, is a 
member of the civil brotherhood of Louisi- 
ana, and entitled to equal consideration. 
If elected, I shall esteem myself the ser- 
vant of THE WHOLE PEOPLE of Louisiana. 



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014 544 671 



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